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Recovery firms narrowly escape huge coning-off bills
Page 15
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RECOVERY OPERATORS could have faced massive bills every time they needed a motorway coned off under Highways Agency plans.
But the Highways Agency says the controversial scheme has been suspended indefinitely, not scrapped altogether.
Recovery operators claim that Carillion, which maintains the M25 for the agency, won permission to charge between £750 and £1,500 if called out to give assistance.
Bob Hunt, owner of Langley Vale Recovery in Epsom, Surrey. says: "I first found out about it two months ago from some tyre people. They were suddenly find ing that when they requested help, police were not there to do it and were calling in Carillon instead.
"If they did start charging, it would be five times greater than what we charge for recovering any form of small vehicle," He adds that any charges would increase the likelihood of accidents because it would discourage people from taking proper safety precautions.
A HighwaysAgency spokesman says: "We have now suspended them. There is absolutely no proposal to reintroduce the charging."
A Carillion spokeswoman says: "It is incorrect to say that Carillion charges people for coning off an area."